How working at a restaurant prepared me to work in a fast paced environment

Customers are always ordering, and as a server you have to answer every single phone call, while answering the kitchen’s many questions. The restaurant is a busy and fast paced environment, where you have to be on your toes and ready. As a server at a busy indian restaurant in New Jersey, I had to be hustling and keeping a track of everything, learning many skills along the way.

Working in a fast paced environment

When I was in the restaurant I gained experience having to be on my toes. I’d have to clean tables, take orders, greet customers, take phone calls, serve food, and make sure the kitchen and the front were on the same page. From this job, I got experience on how important it is to move fast in a rapid environment. I also learned how to give good customer service, market, and sell food to different customers. When on a packed day like Friday, customers keep coming in to dine while others take out, and lines can be long. I was on the floor, meaning I had to take care of all customers, make sure they got their food on time, and they were pleased with the service. Not everything goes as planned when working in a fast paced environment, mistakes happen and things get confusing. One thing I got from this, was to make sure I recovered if I did make a mistake and to not let it happen again. At the end of the day, all we wanted was the customers’ happiness, and I did anything to make sure they got that.

Sales

When working at a restaurant, it is very important to know and memorize the entire menu. The reason it’s really important is because a customer can ask you what each item has and what it is. Memorizing about 60 different dishes is really hard and especially when you’re vegetarian. It took me a week to understand everything on the menu and what each dish had in it. As a vegetarian, the meats were really hard for me to grasp and get but I put my mind to it and learnt it all in a week. After learning the menu, the next step was to explain to customers what it is and how it came and all that good stuff. And how you pitched them would affect your sales. You weren’t physically selling just the food, but also the service. When telling what each food is, how you say it and in what manner you say…